<p>The National Park Service is proposing a permit system at&nbsp;Arizona&rsquo;s Grand Canyon National Park, which receives more than 1 million visitors each year, <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2015/12/01/grand-canyon-looks-for-new-ways-to-manage-backcountry"><em>US News &amp; World Report&nbsp;</em>reported</a> on Tuesday. The permits would cut back on the 30,000-plus overnight campers, backpackers, rock climbers, and runners who venture below the canyon&rsquo;s rim and cause an increase in noise, litter, and bathroom line length&mdash;all of which are common complaints among&nbsp;hikers.</p><p>In addition to limiting the number of people who stay below the rim at any given time, the permit system would help protect the desert environment and archaeological sites, <a href="http://knau.org/post/increased-visitation-stressing-grand-canyon-s-remote-areas#stream/0">according to KNAU</a>, Arizona&rsquo;s public radio station. Officials are also proposing a $5 day-hike permit for those venturing farther than five miles.</p><p>&ldquo;This plan is really recognizing our wilderness resources and managing to preserve that wilderness character,&rdquo; Linda Jalbert, wilderness coordinator for the park, told KNAU. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not closing off any new areas.&nbsp;We&rsquo;re just really looking at a different management strategy to better protect those areas.&rdquo;</p><p>The Park Service is currently seeking the public&rsquo;s input regarding the&nbsp;proposed permits <a href="http://parkplanning.nps.gov/meetingNotices.cfm?projectID=22633">on its website</a>. Officials will also hold a public meeting to discuss the regulations&nbsp;on Monday, December 7, in Flagstaff, Arizona.</p>

<p>Lewis Kent set a beer mile world record on Tuesday night in Austin, Texas, when he ran the second annual FloTrack World Championships in 4:47.17, <a href="http://espn.go.com/sports/endurance/story/_/id/14270259/endurance-sports-world-records-fall-beer-mile-world-championships">ESPN reports.</a>&nbsp;The <a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/1927726/allure-5-minute-beer-mile-your-mark-get-set-slosh">race involves</a> running four laps around a track&nbsp;and chugging a beer before each lap, for a total of four beers per race.&nbsp;Kent, a 22-year-old Canadian cross-country runner, broke his record of 4:54.4 that he had set&nbsp;last month.&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t going in to set a [new] world record,&rdquo; Kent told <em>Outside</em>. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t looking at the clock. I just wanted to win the race, and then I saw the times&nbsp;after I crossed the finish line. I was really surprised.&rdquo;</p><p>As the first-place finisher, Kent received a $5,000&nbsp;prize, as well as an undisclosed bonus from his sponsor, Brooks. (Kent announced last week that he signed a <a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/2038086/lewis-kent-gets-paid-drink-beer-and-run">two-year shoe and apparel contract</a> with Brooks, making him the world&rsquo;s only professional beer-miler.)&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Other brands are hardcore intense, whereas Brooks is really about having a good time, and that kind of meshes with me, and the beer mile in general,&rdquo; he told <a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/2038086/lewis-kent-gets-paid-drink-beer-and-run"><em>Outside</em> in November.</a>&nbsp;</p>

<p>Residents of Hamburg, Germany, voted against holding the 2024 Olympic Games in their home city in a referendum held&nbsp;last Sunday, <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OLY_2024_BIDS_WHAT_NOW?SITE=AP&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">the AP reports</a>. The results of the citywide poll reflected 48.4 percent&nbsp;in favor of hosting the Olympics&nbsp;and 51.6 percent against the bid. Four potential host cities now remain: Los Angeles, California;&nbsp;Rome, Italy;&nbsp;Paris, France; and Budapest, Hungary.</p><p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why referendums are held&mdash;to find out what the population wants, and obviously Hamburgers don&rsquo;t want the Olympics,&rdquo;&nbsp;Christiane Wirtz, a spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, told the AP.</p><p>Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz said he was unhappy with the results of the vote, which some critics attributed to an&nbsp;$11.9 billion budget. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a decision that we didn&rsquo;t want,&rdquo; <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34960208">Scholz told the BBC</a>, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s clear.&rdquo;</p><p>As <a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/2003031/boston-will-not-host-2024-olympics"><em>Outside</em>&nbsp;reported last July</a>, budgetary concerns played a similar role in selecting Los Angeles, which became a candidate city shortly after&nbsp;Boston withdrew from the running. At the time, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said he decided against the plan because he was under too much pressure to sign an agreement with the International Olympic Committee&nbsp;before being sure that the city would not be responsible for cost overruns.</p>

<p>A commercial Boeing 757 flown by Icelandic Airlines landed at Union Glacier, Antarctica, last Thursday. It was&nbsp;the first commercial flight to the continent, <a href="http://antarctic-logistics.com/?page_id=657">according to a press release</a> from tourism company Antarctic Logistics &amp; Expeditions (ALE). ALE said the flight was &ldquo;undertaken to prove the feasibility of landing commercial passenger airliners at Union Glacier.&rdquo;</p><p>Union Glacier has served as a runway for many years, with the ALE transporting between 400 and&nbsp;500 passengers each season. But those flights were mostly made by cargo aircraft, and the passengers were primarily there to focus on research projects, <a href="http://www.traveller.com.au/loftleidir-icelandic-airline-lands-commercial-boeing-757-passenger-jet-on-antarctica-for-the-first-time-glb5a9">Australia&rsquo;s <em>Traveller</em> reports</a>.&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/1927676/everything-you-need-know-about-getting-antarctica">Tourists who wish to travel to&nbsp;Antarctica</a> have traditionally arrived by boat through the Southern Ocean, departing from South Africa, Chile, or,&nbsp;in some cases, New Zealand.&nbsp;</p>

<p>American alpine ski racer&nbsp;Mikaela&nbsp;Shiffrin&nbsp;won back-to-back World Cup slalom victories in Aspen, Colorado, by&nbsp;record margins, the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_29179815/mikaela-shiffrin-widens-lead-world-cup-slalom?source=rss"><em>Denver Post</em></a>&nbsp;reported on Sunday. The 20-year-old is the first American to win at Aspen since 1984&nbsp;and the first American ever to do so twice in two days.</p><p>On Saturday,&nbsp;Shiffrin&nbsp;took first by a margin of 3.07 seconds, shattering the&nbsp;<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/29/sport/shiffrin-ski-world-cup-aspen/">record that had been&nbsp;in place</a>&nbsp;since 1968.&nbsp;On Sunday, she went on to claim her&nbsp;17th&nbsp;World Cup victory after beating Swedish skier&nbsp;Frida&nbsp;Hansdotter&nbsp;by 2.65 seconds. Shiffrin&rsquo;s combined time came in at&nbsp;1:39.81,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aspentimes.com/news/19327693-113/mikaela-shiffrin-takes-early-lead-in-aspen-slalom">the&nbsp;<em>Aspen Times&nbsp;</em>reports</a>.</p><p>&ldquo;There are plenty of races left this season,&rdquo;&nbsp;Shiffrin&nbsp;told the<em>&nbsp;Denver Post</em>. &ldquo;[Saturday and Sunday]&nbsp;were pretty incredible, definitely for me and for the U.S. Ski Team, but I don&rsquo;t expect [dominating wins]&nbsp;to happen in the next races.&rdquo;</p><p>Shiffrin&nbsp;holds five consecutive slalom victories, including three from last season.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Sketchy&nbsp;Andy&rdquo;&nbsp;Lewis released a video of his newest project, Thug Mansion&mdash;a highline rigged between two cord nets&mdash;on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHHjvSnpMso">his&nbsp;YouTube channel</a>&nbsp;last week. Lewis and the rest of&nbsp;Moab-based group Slacklife Monkey are known for setting up and&nbsp;crossing <a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/1868386/andy-lewis-witch-and-warlock">daring highlines</a>.</p><p>To create Thug Mansion, the members of Slacklife&nbsp;Monkey&nbsp;suspended two space nets (essentially large hammocks made from cord)&nbsp;400 feet above the ground and connected them with a floatline, which Lewis described on YouTube as a &ldquo;highline with two dynamic anchors.&rdquo;&nbsp;Lewis crossed the floatline with a BASE setup, jumping off partway across the highline,&nbsp;to complete what he called the first &ldquo;net-to-net BASE line.&rdquo;</p><p>Watch it here:</p><p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GHHjvSnpMso?related=1&amp;autoplay=false" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" width="1280" height="720"></iframe></p>

<p>Temperatures in 2015 will likely be the highest ever recorded, according to <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2015/11/25/un-weather-agency-its-record-hot-out-there-this-year">an early bird report</a> released this morning by the United Nation&rsquo;s World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The record heat was caused by a strong El Nino and human-induced climate change.&nbsp;The report also states that the five-year span&nbsp;from 2011 to 2015 was the hottest ever, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34915448">the BBC reports</a>.&nbsp;</p><p>Last week, the National Centers for Environmental Information released a report that found&nbsp;<a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/2037241/october-was-warmest-month-ever">October to be&nbsp;the warmest month</a> ever recorded,&nbsp;and also stated that the year was&nbsp;on track to be the hottest in history.&nbsp;&ldquo;This is all bad news for the planet,&rdquo; said WMO secretary-general Michael Jarraud in a statement, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/25/us-climatechange-summit-hottest-idUSKBN0TE10820151125">according to Reuters</a>.</p><p>The new findings come one week before the climate change summit in Paris and are expected to play a part in discussions between global leaders.&nbsp;</p>

Brazilian police are investigating $10 billion worth of construction contracts for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between state-run oil company Petrobras and various engineering firms.

<p>Brazilian police are investigating $10 billion worth of construction contracts for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,&nbsp;between&nbsp;state-run oil company Petrobras and various engineering firms, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/25/us-brazil-olympics-petrobras-exclusive-idUSKBN0TD1XO20151125#fXC8KjzP1oereX9O.97">Reuters reported on Wednesday</a>. Igor Romario, a federal police chief in Brazil, said that the firms &ldquo;very probably&rdquo; broke price fixing and bribery laws in their contracts to build Olympic venues.</p><p>These revelations are a part of a bigger, two-year&nbsp;investigation dubbed &ldquo;Operation Car Wash&rdquo; by Brazilian police into corruption at Petrobras, which has resulted in several high profile arrests, including those of a senator and the chief executive of the largest investment bank in Brazil, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/brazil-police-arrest-ceo-of-brazilian-bank-btg-pactual-in-corruption-probe-1448457954">according to the<i> Wall Street Journal</i></a>.</p><p>&quot;In every situation where there has been an investigation into contracts with these companies, this model of corruption was repeated,&quot; Romario told Reuters. &quot;It&#39;s possible that it was repeated in the projects for the 2016 Olympics.&quot; He noted there is currently no evidence pointing to corruption or bribery in the Olympic bidding process.</p><p>The Rio Olympics begin on August 5, 2016.</p>

<p>American runners Jim Walmsley, 25,&nbsp;and Sarah Bard, 31, took first-place finishes in the men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s divisions of Saturday&rsquo;s&nbsp;John F. Kennedy 50-Mile Run&nbsp;in Washington County, Maryland, <a href="http://www.jfk50milemdt.org/2015/Jfk502015Results-7.txt">according to the race&rsquo;s website</a>. The race is the oldest ultramarathon in the United&nbsp;States. It begins in&nbsp;Boonsboro, Maryland&mdash;60 miles northwest of Washington, DC&mdash;and traces the Appalachian Trail for a section, gaining&nbsp;1,172 feet in elevation. After about 15 miles, the race&nbsp;returns to a flat&nbsp;gravel road. The course finishes in Williamsport, Maryland.</p><p>Both competitors also won last year&nbsp;but&nbsp;improved their times in 2015.&nbsp;Walmsley&nbsp;completed the race in 5:47:37, nine minutes faster than the year before,&nbsp;and Bard finished in 6:31:11, about six minutes&nbsp;faster than her 2014 time.</p><p>&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t say it felt any different, as far as added pressure,&rdquo; Walmsley told <a href="http://www.runnersworld.com/trail-racing/defending-champions-take-jfk-50-miler"><em>Runner&rsquo;s World</em></a>. &ldquo;I see myself as a very natural road racer&nbsp;but a very talented trail runner, so I definitely think the variety on this course suits me a lot.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Colorado&rsquo;s first serious avalanche accident of the season took place in Summit County on Saturday, according to the <a href="http://avalanche.state.co.us/">Colorado Avalanche Information Center</a>&nbsp;(CAIC). Summit County Rescue Group, assisted by a&nbsp;helicopter from national emergency rescue&nbsp;group Flight for Life, evacuated a skier&nbsp;partially buried on the east side of Bald Mountain, near the town of Breckenridge, according to <em><a href="http://www.summitdaily.com/news/19250944-113/summit-county-rescuers-responded-to-three-avalanches-this">Summit Daily News</a></em>.</p><p>The man was skiing alone on a northeast-facing slope,&nbsp;at an angle of about 38 degrees, that had received 20 inches of snow from the week&rsquo;s storm. After the slide, he found a bar of cellphone&nbsp;service and made multiple calls to 911. At 2 p.m. local time, he reached a dispatcher&nbsp;to report that he was injured, according to CAIC&nbsp;forecaster Scott Toepfer, who has&nbsp;30 years of avalanche forecasting experience.&nbsp;</p><p>The man was rescued at 4:30 p.m. MST. His injuries were not life&nbsp;threatening, but he was at risk for hypothermia.</p><p>Two additional avalanches were reported in Summit County on Sunday.&nbsp;One was located near Arapahoe Basin, but not within the ski area&rsquo;s boundaries, and the other was near the top of Loveland Pass. No burials were reported.</p><p>&ldquo;Both my boss, who was with me, and I kept saying, &lsquo;I can&rsquo;t believe how big this avalanche is on November 21,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Toepfer, who visited the slide area the next day. &ldquo;This was an unusually&nbsp;large avalanche for this time of year. And&nbsp;as much as I love avalanches, that makes me very anxious.&rdquo;</p>